Monday, December 5, 2011

Wheat And Dental Disease

Dr. Davis briefly surveys the history of wheat, and notes the following:
"Hunter gatherer humans who first began to incorporate wild einkorn into their diet experienced a downtown in health, including more dental caries, bone diseases, and probably atherosclerosis and cancer. Likewise, modern hunter gatherer cultures who do not consume wheat are spared these conditions."
(Einkorn is the orginal form of wheat, the least toxic variety.)

Oetzi the ice man (found frozen in a glacier), "had wheat and barley as major cereals in [his] intestines, together with some weed seeds..."

Therefore:
"'...Although the Iceman did not lose a single tooth until the his death at an age of about 40 years, he had an advanced abrasion of his teeth, profound carious lesions, and a moderate to severe periodontitis,' the researchers said."
The researchers conclude:
"'We already know that he was eating grains, such as einkorn or emmer. The contained carbohydrates clearly increased the risk of developing dental diseases,' Zink said."
This is mistaken.  There are plenty of high-carbohydrate diets that will leave you with perfect teeth. 
Dr. Weston Price visited Africa and surveyed the Kikuyu tribe:
"Their chief articles of diet are sweet potatoes, corn, beans, and some bananas, millet, and Kafir corn, a variety of Indian millet."
They have the typical malnutrition of a high-carbohydrate diet, "The Kikuyus are not as tall as the Masai and physically they are much less rugged." However, as Dr. Price observes:
Kikuyu teeth
"Note their fine teeth and dental arches."
Tooth decay seems to be a singular side-effect of eating wheat and related grains.  Dr. Mellanby discovered a tooth-decay reversing diet, which consisted of:
"...instead of cereals- for example, bread, oatmeal, rice, and tapioca- an increased allowance of potatoes and other vegetables, milk, fat, meat, and eggs was given. The total sugar, jam, and syrup intake was the same as before. Vitamin D was present in abundance in either cod-liver oil or irradiated ergosterol, and in egg yolk, butter, milk, etc. The diet of these children was thus rich in those factors, especially vitamin D and calcium, which experimental evidence has shown to assist calcification, and was devoid of those factors- namely, cereals- which interfere with the process."
Oetzi suggests that even a bit of wheat in the diet is going to be problematic.

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